


The Pillars of the Skies

by orangealuminumcan



Category: Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (2016), Star Wars - All Media Types
Genre: Action/Adventure, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, F/M, Friends to Lovers, Gen, Plotty, Post-Canon Fix-It, Senator Leia Organa, Slow Burn, Years Later, projected length: epic, the slowest burn
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-05-25
Updated: 2020-07-05
Packaged: 2021-03-03 01:00:48
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 7,916
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24366211
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orangealuminumcan/pseuds/orangealuminumcan
Summary: The war is over but the remains of the Empire still haunt the New Republic. Jyn Erso tracks down an old ally to join a new project that will hopefully show the Galaxy what justice looks like in the New Republic... if it doesn't tear the fragile peace apart.
Relationships: Cassian Andor/Jyn Erso
Comments: 17
Kudos: 34





	1. Chapter 1

On a wet and rugged planet in a far corner of the Galaxy, Jyn Erso squinted through the slanting rain at the bar in front of her. It was dingy and inhospitable, nearly indistinguishable from the other low colorless buildings that were packed closely around it. The only thing that set it apart was a splash of red paint on the wall near the door. It looked like an upside down check mark, though someone had tried to add some additional details. If you squinted, it might look like a bird leaping into flight, its wings caught on the downstroke.

Jyn was more interested in finding the bar than what was on the sign. Now that she had found it her biggest concern was getting out of rain. She hurried inside.

The interior of the bar was as uninspiring as the exterior. Despite being nearly empty, it was uncomfortably warm and close inside. The lights were dim and irregular leaving patches of the room in deep shadow. Metal shutters covered the windows, angled to keep the interior hidden from prying eyes outside while affording anyone inside with a glimpse of the street. The harsh bluish light of a street lamp strafed the interior of the bar with narrow bands of light and shadow. It reminded Jyn uncomfortably of some of the prison cells she had been forced to inhabit at one time or another.

If Jyn’s entrance was noted by the other patrons they gave no indication. A trio in one of the pod-like booths around the perimeter of the room didn’t pause their quietly intense conversation at her entrance. The only other person in the place, a figure seated at a shadowed table, appeared to be quietly drinking himself senseless straight from the bottle. Nevertheless, Jyn kept her guard up as she approached the bar.

She took a seat at the bar as the bartender emerged from a doorway behind the counter. He was a large non-human of a race Jyn didn’t recognize. His body was shaped like an egg with a long face that resembled a tapir. He had no neck to speak of and his head sat directly atop a pair of burly sloping shoulders from which a long multi-jointed pair of arms sprang. A secondary pair of arms, shorter and ending in long-fingered hands, was below them.

“Get something for you?” he grunted in a deep nasal voice.

“Whatever’s local,” Jyn replied.

“We got strot or alrot.”

“Strot, then.”

He poured a measure of clear alcohol into a glass and slopped an opaque amber liquid in after it until the glass was full. Jyn pushed her credits across the bar and collected the drink. She didn’t recognize the name of the drink, but based on the fumes it was probably pure alcohol. She took an experimental sip and managed to not choke. After she got past the initial burn it wasn’t so bad, though the point was clearly the alcohol content and not the flavor.

Jyn kept her head down as she nursed her drink. She was nearly to the bottom of her glass by the time the conversation in the booth wrapped up and the three people departed one by one without saying a word. The bartender lumbered out after they left to collect the glasses and swipe indifferently at the surface of the table with a rag. He returned behind the bar and began to put the glasses away.

“You want something else?” he asked.

“Just waiting for a friend.”

“We’re closing soon,” the bartender said pointedly. Jyn placed another handful of credits on the bar.

“I’ll wait a little longer, if that’s okay.” The bartender shrugged - an impressive motion with four shoulders - and reached for the credits. Jyn dropped her hand back on top of the small pile of currency.

“I’m looking for Cassian,” she said in a low voice. The bartender’s hand paused. Jyn looked at him intently. It was hard for her to read the body language of a species she had never met before, but she guessed he was worried. Slowly he withdrew his hand and went back to cleaning glasses.

“What for?” he finally asked.

“Just talk,” Jyn said and the bartender made a honking sound through his long nose. Jyn could tell it was a scoffing laugh. She didn’t blame him. “Talk about a job.”

The bartender kept cleaning glasses silently. Jyn could tell she wasn’t going to get anything if she kept going like this. She left a few credits on the bar and withdrew the rest, making sure to let them rattle noisily against the rest of the credits in her pocket. “I’ll stop by again later. Just let him know I came about a job.”

“You heard the lady.”

For a moment Jyn was confused. Who was he talking to? But she heard the sound of a footstep behind her and everything fell into place

Before she could react, a hand grabbed her roughly by the shoulder. She was hauled off the stool and her back slammed hard against the bar. She grabbed the arm that still held her shoulder and twisted, breaking the hold. She tried to drive her elbow into her attacker’s face but he leapt clear.

Jyn straightened up and faced the drunk from the shadowed table.

“Hello, Cassian.”

The man who faced her was unmistakably her old ally, but it was no wonder she hadn’t recognized him earlier.

Cassian Andor did not look good. His cheeks were sunken and his hooded eyes were shadowed. He had never been a large man but his build had grown gaunt. His posture was different, too. It was hard to put her finger on what had changed because he had never had the stiff upright bearing of a soldier, but now the easy grace in his slouch was gone. Instead of looking alert but relaxed he just looked tired. 

And he was thoroughly drunk.

Despite being obviously worse for drink, he still had enough presence of mind to stay just out of Jyn’s range. He swayed a little as he stood but his expression was as sharp as ever.

“What are you doing here?” he demanded. His voice was the same. Somehow that made it worse, to hear the familiar voice from this shadow of a man.

“I was just in the sector,” Jyn began. Cassian lunged forward and grabbed her collar in both hands. _Not in the mood for conversation, got it_ , Jyn thought. She immediately shoved him and he fell back, but he managed to hang onto her coat. They grappled for a second - Cassian trying to toss her out the door and Jyn trying to hold her ground - until she threw him off and he staggered back into a table. Someone had prudently bolted the tables to the floor, so he managed to stay on his feet. Using the table to brace himself, Cassian straightened up and pointed over Jyn’s shoulder.

“Vreet. Throw her out,” he said.

Jyn whirled to face the bartender, ready for a fight, but the alien cast a dour look at the two humans.

“Nah. Off the clock.”

Jyn watched cautiously, but Vreet made no move towards her. He pulled a Vreet-sized rain cape from behind the doorway next to him and lumbered unconcernedly between her and Cassian on his way out the door. It was hard to tell in the dim bar, but for a second Jyn thought he winked one of his beady eyes at her as he passed. The pneumatic seal on the door hissed open as he exited and for a moment the bar was filled with the drumming sound of the rain. Then Jyn and Cassian were left alone.

She looked back at him but he had turned his back to her.

Looking at Cassian’s slumped shoulders, Jyn felt her emotions roil. She wasn’t sure what she expected to find when the New Republic sent her looking for the former Captain Andor, but it wasn’t this. In her mind he was always a little larger than life, though he was average height. He was always a little louder, though he never raised his voice.

 _This is why they say you should never meet your heroes_ , a little voice said. Jyn pushed the thought aside. She opened her mouth, not really sure what she was going to say to him, but he broke the silence first.

“What do you want?” he asked.

“I’m here to offer you a job,” she said. Cassian lifted his head but still wouldn’t turn around. Jyn could read the skepticism in the gesture. “It’s true. The New Republic needs you. You’re the best intelligence officer they ever had. They want Captain Andor back.” She paused to see how that would go over, but he didn’t react. Jyn shifted her weight awkwardly. “Actually, they wanted me to tell you you’re a Major now. They gave you a promotion after Nakadia. I told them it probably wouldn’t change your mind, but…”

Cassian laughed mirthlessly. He retrieved the bottle from the table he had vacated earlier and sank into the nearest chair. For a long moment he seemed lost in thought, eyes focused somewhere in the middle distance, until he finally lifted his gaze to Jyn. He jerked his chin at the other chair and Jyn joined him. As she pulled the chair out Cassian took a drink directly from the bottle.

“I knew you were coming,” he said at last, letting the bottle fall back to the table with a thunk. Jyn reacted to his words with surprise and Cassian glanced up at her briefly. “I heard the Republic was looking for me, but I didn’t think they’d send you. Did they think it would help their case?” he asked with a bitter sneer.

“I volunteered,” Jyn said evenly. Cassian acknowledged that with a nod.

“I decline.”

“I haven’t even told you what the job is,” Jyn said, allowing a hint of frustration to creep into her voice. She had spent months tracking him to this system and another week searching all the bars on this planet for his. She knew it wouldn’t do any good to tell Cassian how many resources the New Republic had spent looking for him, but this wasn’t an idle search. Even now a courier ship was on standby at the spaceport, just in case.

“It doesn’t matter. I’m done with the Republic,” Cassian said.

Jyn felt a chill. The possibility that Cassian was now working against the Republic had never occurred to her. She realized maybe it should have. “Are you against the Republic, then?” she asked with studied casualness.

Cassian lurched forward in his seat. “Never!” he growled. “I would never betray the Republic.”

“You deal in a lot of information here,” Jyn pointed out. “You expect me to believe you only sell information to nice law-abiding citizens?”

“There’s a lot of grey area between working for the Republic and being against the Republic. You should know that,” he added pointedly. He took another swig from the bottle as he leaned back in his chair. This time when he returned the bottle to the table Jyn picked it up and took a drink herself. It didn’t burn like strot, but it didn’t make for easy drinking. As she replaced the bottle she noted that it was already close to empty.

“No, I’m not against the Republic, but I’m done with them all the same,” Cassian said. There was something about the finality in his voice, the bitter acceptance, that shook Jyn. Whatever made Cassian turn away from the Republic that he had once devoted his life to ran deeper than a longing for a fresh start. Something in him had rotted.

“They need you, Cassian,” Jyn said simply. “We need you.”

“Need? What does the Republic need with me? Huh?” Cassian retrieved the bottle and took another long pull before returning it to the table with a slam. “A spy? An assassin? Whose petty political goals am I supposed to serve?

“That’s not-”

“That’s what I’m good at. What else would I be needed for? No. If the Republic needs me then it’s not the Republic I fought for.”

“The war is over but the Empire isn’t finished. There are still the local warlords, Imperial sympathizers who haven’t let it go. That’s why-”

Cassian leaned toward her and held up a finger. “Answer me this. Is this a political job?”

“You’d be working for the Republic, of course it’s a political job.”

“You know what I mean.”

Jyn wanted to say no. She was good at lying, she could have just opened her mouth and said whatever would have convinced him. But somehow she couldn’t bring herself to lie to Cassian. _You should have sent someone else, Senator_ , Jyn thought ruefully. Cassian nodded slowly at her silence.

“That’s what’s I thought. My answer is no.”

Jyn slumped back in the chair with defeat. She should have known better than to pin her hopes on someone else like this, even if it was Cassian. She looked across the table at him but this time she really looked at him.

She hadn’t realized until this moment how much she had built him up in her mind. Around the actual man Cassian Andor she had constructed another man, someone who was braver and stronger and more devoted than the real thing. The image of Cassian she had held onto since the last time she had seen him over five years ago was more like an icon than an actual memory of her old friend. She could understand that now. In a strange sort of way she was grateful for the reminder.

Cassian was a scarred and tired veteran who, like many others, had been let down by the reality of the Republic in one way or another. That was all.

Jyn pulled a short-range communicator out of her jacket and sent a hailing signal. Cassian looked up at the sound.

A moment later the communicator beeped and a tinny voice said, “This is ship _Constellation_ , over.” 

“ _Constellation_ this is Aurora. Ready for rendezvous whenever you are,” Jyn said.

“Roger that. What’re your coordinates?”

“Sending now.”

“Receiving.” There was a pause. “How’d it go?” the person on the other end asked.

“No good,” Jyn replied, locking eyes with Cassian. “I’m coming back alone.”

“Sorry to hear it,” _Constellation_ said conversationally. “We’ll see you shortly. Over and out.”

As the communicator went silent Cassian rose unsteadily to his feet. Jyn kept her eyes fixed on the back of his chair as he walked over to the bar and set the empty bottle on its surface. She sensed him approach but she didn’t look up. What more was there to say?

“Jyn.” She scowled at the painful sound of hearing her name in his voice and ignored him.

She was startled into looking up when she felt something brush her cheek. Cassian gently tipped her face up to his. Half his face was obscured by the shadows of the shutters but the expression on the portion she could see was too subtle read. Though she couldn’t see his eyes she could feel the intensity of his gaze.

“It’s good to see you again,” Cassian said softly. Slowly, he lowered his face towards hers.

Jyn froze in surprise and confusion. As his face drew closer she realized something was wrong.

Cassian’s hand dropped from her cheek and he slowly fell face first onto the floor, dead drunk.

Jyn turned and stared at him, still trying to make sense of the sequence of events that had transpired in just the last two minutes. Cassian declined the job, she contacted her ride, Cassian passed out. Cassian passed out after saying and doing something so unexpected and inexplicable that Jyn was still struggling to understand it. She shook herself. _Forget it._

Hastily she knelt next to Cassian and rolled him onto his back. A quick examination revealed he was still breathing, though there was already a formidable lump on his forehead. Luckily he had fallen at an angle or he would have ended up with worse.

Jyn sat back on her heels with a heavy sigh. She let all her disappointment and stress and anger out on that single long breath.

 _To hell with this._ The mission was a bust. All those months of work down the drain with nothing to show for it. And worse, they still had to find someone to replace Cassian. She shot the unconscious man a resentful look. He was still the best. She could tell. He had known the Republic was looking for him. She guessed his presence in the bar tonight wasn’t a coincidence, either. And of course, this bar was notorious as a nexus of information. Whether Cassian collected it himself or simply knew the people who knew and put them in touch with the people who would pay to know, the secrets of the Galaxy flowed through his fingers. Maybe he was done with the Republic, but some part of him was still in the fight.

But he turned her down flat. He wouldn’t even hear her out. _Some information broker you are_ , Jyn thought with one last scornful look at Cassian as she pushed herself to her feet. _You’ll be regretting this in the morning._

Outside she could hear the rumble of the _Constellation_ ’s engines over the constant rain. Perfect timing. She was ready to leave this rock and its ungrateful inhabitants behind.

However she couldn’t help pausing in front of the open door to take one last look at Cassian. He was still lying on the floor where she had left him, his figure outlined by the bands of light and shadow coming through the shutters. Once again she was reminded of the segmented view of the world through a prison cell.

The last time she had been in a cell was in the labor camp on Wobani. Wobani, where she had been abducted by K2 and dragged to Yavin 4.

Jyn smiled ruefully at the memory.

The communicator in her pocket crackled to life. “Aurora, come in. You’re not at the rendezvous.”

“Yeah, sorry. Can one of you meet me? I need a hand with my luggage.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Buckle up for the long haul with this one. There are so many places I'm taking this story and I hope you'll stick with me until the end.
> 
> Just to get it out of the way, though it would come up later, Jyn and Cassian are the only members of Rogue One to survive. Many familiar faces will make their appearances in turn but no one else from Rogue One.
> 
> Big thanks to my beta reader M. Rae for confirming that chickens are, in fact, canon.


	2. Chapter 2

Cassian Andor was jolted awake by the familiar lurch of a ship leaving hyperspace.

Since the last thing he remembered was finishing a bottle of radac in his bar, this was a very rude awakening. The colossal hangover from the radac didn’t help matters, nor did the shooting pain that radiated from his forehead. The first thing he did was groan. Next he concentrated on opening his eyes. Eventually he was able to sit up and try to gather his bearings.

He was in a berth on a ship. Judging by the size of the berth and the feel of the engine, it was a small ship. He noted a few signs of age, but everything was clean and well maintained. There were a few small personal effects on the other three berths, but he ignored those for now. He fought down the nausea long enough to stand and make his way to the closet-sized ‘fresher at the nearer end of the room, where he promptly threw up everything the had eaten in the last 24 hours. It wasn’t much, which helped explain the hangover.

He felt fractionally better when he was done and used the small sink to rinse his mouth out. When he straightened up he caught sight of his reflection in the mirror and swore. He looked like hell, even for him. There was a lump the size of a hen’s egg on his forehead just above his temple and a raw scrape on his cheek. Cassian prodded it experimentally and winced. Extremely fresh. That would leave a gruesome bruise. Try though he might, he couldn’t piece together how he had wound up with these injuries.

The door at the opposite end of the room opened as he emerged from the refresher and Jyn entered. A few bleary memories fell into place.

“Ah-ha,” he said sourly. “That explains it.”

Jyn tossed him something underhand and he caught it against his chest. A med pack.

“You’ll be wanting that, I’m guessing,” she said. Cassian wouldn’t have refused even if he had any dignity left. He popped the pack open and laid it over both injuries on the left side of his face. That meant covering his left eye, too, but it couldn’t hurt. There was a prickle as the pack activated, but a moment later the pain began to subside as the dose went to work.

Jyn had closed the door behind her when she entered and now she leaned against it with her arms folded. Cassian took a moment to confirm in better lighting what he had observed the night before.

She looked good. There was a flush of health on her cheeks. If anything she looked younger now than when he had first met her over ten years ago. The wariness and tension she had lived with for so long was gone. The Republic suited her, apparently. Her hair was longer; even in a braid it hung well past her shoulders. The contrast between how they had each weathered the transition from Rebel Alliance to New Republic couldn’t be more clear.

Ever since he had heard the first hints of the Republic trying to track him down Cassian had known he would be confronted with something like this eventually, but he hadn’t expected Jyn to be the one to find him. Seeing her drew from him a strange mix of feelings. Frustration and disappointment, at her and at himself, burned like bile in his chest. Resentment at a Republic that had failed him after all he had done for it. So many memories, and so few of them were good.

But seeing Jyn also brought a sense of relief. _She’s okay._

He had wondered about her, after Scarif. The experience had bound them together, but the war had dragged them apart. Over the years of battle he would find himself thinking of her at his most desperate moments. It was almost like their shared survival was his lucky charm. As long as she was still alive, he would be, too. They had been thrown together a handful of times for a few missions and they made a good team, but they were almost too good. Skills like theirs were always needed elsewhere, and ultimately it was more efficient to spread their talents out rather than let them keep working together.

After he had walked away from the Republic he kept thinking about her. His trust in the Republic had been misplaced, and what did that mean about all the dirty work he had done for them? How could he still justify everything he had done? It was almost as if he had decided to let Jyn make the choice on his behalf. As long as Jyn could still live with herself, Cassian would live with himself.

But he didn’t intend to live so close to the Republic that he would have to be reminded about it every day, so he had taken himself to the Outer Rim with everyone else who had something they were running from.

While he had been lost in thought Jyn had busied herself at one of the berths. Now she looked up briefly when she noticed his attention.

“We should be getting permission to land any minute now,” she said.

“I never agreed to this job, whatever it is,” Cassian pointed out. “I’m not sure what you think you’ve accomplished by bringing me here.”

Jyn gave him an unreadable look. “A rescue, maybe.”

“A rescue? You abducted me!”

“Funny, I was under the impression that’s how things were done around here,” Jyn said pointedly. It wasn’t hard for Cassian to figure out what she was referring to. At the time he had felt it was the correct course of action. Now, though, he found he couldn’t meet her gaze. She turned back to stuffing the last of her belongings into a large bag before straightening. 

“Look, all you have to do is listen. You don’t even have to say a single word. After you hear everything, if you still won’t do it, you can walk out of there and back onto this ship and Captain Behen will put you back exactly where he found you. On the floor,” she added under her breath.

Cassian didn’t agree but he also didn’t argue. In his current position, with no money on him and no idea where he was, his most pressing need was transportation. He was at her mercy. All he had to do was listen. Maybe he’d even get a chance to tell some Republican stuffed shirt to go to hell. It wasn’t a bad deal.

Jyn took his silence as assent. She hoisted the bag onto her shoulder and headed back through the door she came from. She turned to close the door behind her but stopped.

“I’m not doing this for you,” she said abruptly. “It’s just, Kay would be angry with me if I left you like that. That’s all.”

She left and Cassian was swamped by the memories that name brought back. He fought back a wave of nausea that had nothing to do with alcohol. How could he have forgotten?

It wasn’t like he had actually forgotten, though. He certainly wasn’t trying to forget, but sometimes he stopped remembering. Long hours were spent remembering, walking through familiar bases and ships in his mind, putting a name to every face and face to every name. Cassian remembered Hybren learned to shoot his blaster left handed and that Iaros carried a red rock in her pocket from her hometown. He remembered Mannek told the worst jokes. Narog had a great voice but hated to sing. Omal. Calfor. Lacanilau. Ve’ish. Tivik. Sefla. He remembered them all. He owed it to them by virtue of being the one to survive. He remembered until his head was so full he couldn’t lift it.

But when the memories were less heavy, the guilt weighed him down. They deserved to be remembered and he couldn’t even do that. The only time he wasn’t tortured by memories or guilt was when he was asleep. Sleeping wasn’t quite forgetting, right? If he was asleep he didn’t have to remember, even for a few hours. The memories would be there when he woke up, so it wasn’t like he was abandoning them. Whatever it took to let him sleep without the nightmares, whether that was drinking or working himself to exhaustion, that was fine. Wasn’t it?

He wanted to go after Jyn and shake her. How dare she try to use Kay against him like that? How dare she twist memories of his dead friend to manipulate him into doing what she wanted? She didn’t know K2-SO the way he did. She couldn’t possibly know what coming back to Yavin 4 without the droid had done to Cassian. But he also knew she was right. Kay wouldn’t have cared how Cassian spent his time. If anything Cassian thought it would have amused to droid to see him drunk. But Kay wouldn’t have left him behind.

Oddly enough, he felt like he could hear Kay’s voice now, sarcastically scolding Jyn. _You would, wouldn’t you?_ Cassian thought. _Even if she wanted to, you wouldn’t let her leave me behind. You would have nagged her at every turn until you got your way._

He felt a prickle at the corners of his eyes and tried to rub at them but the med pack was still in the way. He had forgotten it was there. It must not be a very powerful one since his head was already starting to ache again; the dose had already run out. He peeled it off and tossed it aside as the ship rolled beneath him in a landing maneuver.

Cassian followed through the door Jyn had entered from a few minutes earlier and found himself in a short narrow passage. At the end he could see into a cramped cockpit.

The copilot and navigator said little as they brought the ship in. From where he stood in the cockpit’s doorway Cassian only saw brief sweeps of grassland interspersed with dense clusters of low buildings. A minute later the ship evened out and dropped neatly onto a landing pad. As they descended into the shadows cast by the walls the lights in the cockpit came up.

Jyn rose and shouldered her bag. “Well, captain, it’s been a pleasure,” she said, offering her hand. The pilot looked up from his console and smiled warmly.

“It was indeed,” he said, clasping Jyn’s hand briefly. “If you ever need a pilot again be sure to look me up.”

“I will, thank you.”

Cassian caught the navigator staring at him out of the corner of his eye and the woman looked away hastily. She shot a loaded glance at the captain and the older man pushed himself to his feet. “Say, Captain Erso, let me walk you out…” he suggested with forced casualness. Jyn gave him a tight smile that acknowledged his ploy.

“That’s alright, you’ll be busy here. I’m staying in town for a while, though. Let me buy you a drink before you leave.”

“Er, yes. Be happy to…”

As Cassian turned to follow Jyn he caught the now-blatant stares from the pilot and navigator. He was surprised to realize they weren’t hostile but burning with curiosity.

Cassian followed Jyn through the landing area and outside, where he got his first real look at where she had taken him.

The planet’s surface was covered in low rolling hills. The architecture seemed to match the landscape, with squat buildings and shallow domed roofs. All the buildings nearby were decorated similarly, an off-white with blue accents, but in the distance he could see other colors - yellows and reds and purples. Between the buildings on either side he could see the yellow-green grasslands stretched all the way to the distant horizon. As Jyn led him along a wide walkway out of the lee of the building he was hit by a sharp gust of cold wind that shocked him with its intensity.

The wind continued as they followed the walkway to a row of waiting speeders piloted by droids. Jyn passed several until she reached one with a distinct blue and black paint job. She threw her bag into the passenger compartment and turned to Cassian expectantly. He could tell this wasn’t quite a test, but it was a challenge. If he didn’t get in the speeder himself he was pretty confident she would force him, or would at least try. He considered it briefly, but it seemed like a waste of effort to preserve the pride he had discarded long since.

Wordlessly, he stepped into the speeder and Jyn followed.

“Where can I take you?” the droid said in a soothing voice.

“Ablis Plaza,” Jyn replied.

“Certainly.”

The speeder accelerated rapidly and pulled onto a wide boulevard.

If the speeder’s livery hadn’t been enough of a hint, the broad towers in the distance would have told Cassian where he was. A banner flying the seal of the New Republic snapped from the peak of the highest tower. This was Tal Kheer, the capitol of the New Republic. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm going to keep hinting at why Cassian left and I'm going to keep not telling you. But there are Reasons and they'll definitely be revealed eventually.
> 
> Thanks to M. Rae for beta-ing this chapter, even if all they contributed was the comment "I WEEP."


	3. Chapter 3

The interior of the main tower of the New Republic government was a labyrinth. Jyn led him on a convoluted route through the building, on and off lifts, through atria and down passageways. He gave up on keeping track of every turn and instead focused on not losing sight of Jyn as she threaded her way through the steady flow of people.

Being back in the bosom of the Republic would have been uncomfortable enough without a hangover and a mild concussion. Cassian had spent considerable effort over the last five years to avoid reminders of what he left behind. Returning felt like failure twice over; the first that he walked away, the second that he was back. Every uniform he saw was a slap in the face, every complacent functionary was an insult. Whatever small well of patience Cassian had been able to draw from earlier had run dry long before, sometime around the fourth security scan.

Struggling to keep his emotions in check, he fixed his gaze on the back of Jyn’s head and tried shut out the rest of the world. By the time Jyn finally stopped at a doorway Cassian nearly plowed into her, so intent was his focus. She shot him a glare that may have been a warning as she paused for the door to open.

They entered a comfortably appointed waiting room. A selection of seats appropriate to a variety of cultures and species were spaced around the room in small groups. A long empty desk sat at the far end of the room framed by a tall window overlooking a courtyard. A discrete door to one side of the desk slid open and a humanoid droid emerged.

Cassian sank into a chair as the droid approached Jyn.

“Good afternoon, can I help you?”

“Yes, please inform the senator Captain Erso is here with Major Andor.”

The droid cocked his head to one side. “Captain Erso? I’m afraid I don’t see you on the calendar.”

“I don’t have an appointment. I was told to report as soon as my mission was complete.”

“Oh dear. I’m afraid the senator’s schedule is very busy today,” he said apologetically. Jyn cast a skeptical look around the empty room.

“Uh-huh. Can you just inform the senator I’m here? Please,” she added perfunctorily. Cassian recognized the tone as 'Jyn’s rapidly shortening fuse' but either the droid hadn’t picked up on it or he was programmed to ignore it.

“Oh, no, that would never do. You must understand, there are many demands on the senator’s time. Everyone who seeks an audience believes their own concern is of the utmost importance. If people could just barge in on senators whenever they please it would be chaos. Can you imagine? There would be a queue out the door. No, there must be some precedence, otherwise people will start to think they can have a senator at their beck and call.”

“All I’m asking is for you to tell the senator we’re here.”

“Oh no, I couldn’t possibly interrupt now,” the droid said.

“So when do you think you you could interrupt?” Jyn ground out.

“Don’t worry, captain, I’m sure an opportunity will present itself within five or six hours.”

Jyn drew a sharp breath and for a second it seemed she would lose her temper, but instead she turned on her heel and threw herself into a chair.

“In that case, I’ll just wait here until an opportunity presents itself.”

“Perhaps I was unclear. It will likely be several hours until I can inform the senator of your arrival. Perhaps you would prefer to—”

“We’ll wait.”

“Oh dear.”

Silence descended on the room. The droid looked back and forth between the door, Jyn, and Cassian. The two humans ignored the droid and each other. Cassian idly wondered if it would actually take five or six hours for this ploy of Jyn’s to pay off. The chair was surprisingly comfortable, and he wouldn’t mind the opportunity to sleep off the last of this hangover. He suppressed a sigh; he should be so lucky.

Sure enough, it only took a few minutes before the droid returned through the door he had arrived from, muttering anxiously to himself the whole time.

As he exited Jyn flashed a small triumphant smile to herself. Cassian recognized that smile. Something deep in his chest ached at the sight and he turned away. He closed his eyes more out of a desire to ignore Jyn than any hope of catching a few minutes of sleep. The room was quiet but the atmosphere was too tense for him to actually relax.

The door opened again and someone burst in. Cassian glanced up at the sound and found himself transfixed with surprise..

A petite woman with brown hair preceded the droid into the room. Her face lit up with a welcoming smile when she caught sight of the guests. Jyn rose hastily.

“Senator Organa.”

“Captain Erso, you have no idea how glad I was to receive your message,” Senator Leia Organa said, approaching the other woman.

“Not as glad as I was to send it.”

Both women turned to look at Cassian and he realized he was already on his feet. Muscle memory was a powerful thing.

“And Major Andor. It’s been a long time.”

“I’m not an officer anymore,” Cassian corrected, and the senator smiled at him as though they shared a private joke.

“Cassian, then. Come, join me in my office. You must have a lot of questions.”

In a daze, Cassian allowed himself to be ushered into Leia’s private office. His mind was racing. He had met Senator Organa frequently throughout the course of the war in their respective roles as general and intelligence officer. As with many who had fought for the Alliance he held a deep respect for the young leader. More than that, though, ever since he learned it had been Leia who delivered the Death Star plans to the Alliance he had felt a strange personal connection with her.

“Please, sit,” she said and Cassian returned his attention to the present. Leia was looking up at him expectantly from her chair.

Under the weight of her regard Cassian became aware of his appearance. A wave of embarrassment swamped him. He was wearing the same clothes he had put on almost four days ago, with no recollection of the last time they had been washed. At least he had been able to splash some water on his face on the ship, though he doubted it made much of a difference when he hadn’t shaved in weeks. With the black eye the med pack hadn’t fully healed, it was no wonder her protocol droid didn’t want to let them in. He probably looked like an escaped criminal.

Meanwhile Leia was dressed in the elegant style of her home planet in a cool grey surcoat over a dark gown with densely pleated sleeves. Her long brown hair was braided and coiled in an elaborate bun, and a large gem in a silver setting hung from a matching chain at her throat. 

Resigned to his pathetic state, he dropped into the chair across from Leia.

“It’s good to have you back,” she began but stopped when Cassian held up a hand to forestall her.

“I just want to be clear, I haven’t agreed to anything yet,” he warned. Leia raised her eyebrows.

“I’m surprised you’d say that after hearing about what it is we’re trying to do.”

“I, er, didn’t get all the details,” Cassian said. Leia gave him a thoughtful look but made no comment on this uncharacteristic statement.

“The New Republic is creating a war crimes tribunal to bring former Imperial leaders to justice. We’ve formed a special forces strike team to capture Imperial war criminals and bring them to public trial before the Galactic Senate. We need you on that team.”

A frisson of excitement ran though him but he ruthlessly reined it in. Cassian had allowed himself to get his hopes up over more substantial promises from the New Republic before. It was better to keep his expectations low.

“It has to be me? Why?” he demanded. “You have other intelligence officers, other Fulcrum agents. Why go to the trouble to drag me back here?”

“We need someone with your versatility, someone who can improvise in the field. We don’t want word of this operation to spread too early. Putting someone like you in command, someone who’s used to operating independently, will make sure each mission is successful. And, above all, quiet. If the network of Imperial sympathizers gets wind of this it could endanger the entire project.”

“I thought there was an amnesty for Imperial collaborators,” he pointed out.

“There is,” Leia admitted with a scowl. “I fought against it as long as I could, but it was a losing battle. I fear too many senators voted for the amnesty more to protect themselves than out of any desire to protect those forced into collaboration. It was more convenient to dismiss the crime than to confront the fact that some people were more than happy to work with the Empire. Even worse, the amnesty is far too broad. By not prosecuting the most blatant collaborators we’ve allowed them to return to their crimes. The support of the Empire made it easier for them to operate, but they haven’t become any less dangerous without it.

“This is an attempt to rectify that mistake,” Leia went on. “The victims of the Empire deserve justice. They deserve to have their suffering acknowledged. I may not be able to bring those covered by the amnesty to trial, but the amnesty doesn’t cover everyone.”

“You’re talking about Imperial Officers.” She nodded.

“Most of the architects of the Empire’s worst atrocities died in the final battles of the war, but not all of them. Some escaped into the Outer Rim and beyond. Others disguised themselves and slipped back into civilian life. These are the most dangerous ones, the ones we need to track down. They can pass themselves off as veterans or refugees, and with experience as a commander it wouldn’t be hard to make themselves useful to local governments.”

“When you consider how many officers surrendered after Endor, anyone who stayed loyal to the Empire until the bitter end would have to be a fanatic,” Cassian observed. “If someone like that were to make their way into planetary leadership…”

“…or even the Senate,” Leia added. She waited for his reaction with a probing gaze, but Cassian wasn’t surprised by her words. He held her eyes for a long moment, allowing his silence to speak for him. She nodded, each of them knowing better than to voice anything more in a place like this.

“So you want me to, what? Round up a few stubborn Imps and bring them back here for some legal theater to appease your conscience?” Cassian asked sourly.

“I’ll be the first to admit that’s part of it, but it’s not the whole of it. We’re not going for the lowest hanging fruit. These are the worst of the worst, the most egregious criminals. I don’t care about any one stormtrooper who pulled the trigger. I want the commander who gave the order. We can’t let them walk free. The public needs to see them brought to justice.”

“What good will that do? How will that make anything better for the ones who are already dead?”

“It won’t,” Leia said frankly. “But maybe it will make sure it never happens again.

“I won’t lie to you, we need this win. We have to show people our laws and our courts work. Right now they have no reason to see us as any different from the Empire. For the most part local magistrates deal with local matters. If people see the same magistrate dispensing justice in the name of the Republic who was there ten years ago in the name of the Empire, has anything really changed? But if we capture these monsters according to the laws of the Republic, and try them in a Republican tribunal, and lock them up for the rest of their lives in Republic prisons, maybe we can show people that we’re worth trusting.”

Had she known that this was what he needed to hear? Cassian hadn’t realized when he asked what good a trial would do that he actually wanted an answer. He wanted to know if there was a point to everything he had done, all the blood on his hands. He needed to know it had been worth it.

Was there still something in the Republic worth fighting for?

“I can’t promise we’ll win every trial,” she said softly, laying a hand on Cassian’s arm. “Telling the magistrates what their verdict should be before we get to the courtroom would be as much a parody of justice as anything the Empire did. But I can tell you this; we have done everything in our power to make sure any Imperial officer who walks into that court will never be a free man again.”

Looking into the eyes of the General he had followed for years, for a moment Cassian could remember what it was like to believe. He remembered the way belief had burned like a comet in his chest, fierce and bright. It was a palpable thing, an uncomfortable weight. It burned with a fury that fueled him and consumed him. He had lived with it so long that when it was extinguished it had felt like dying. His chest still ached with its absence.

But seeing the belief in her eyes, he felt something reignite.

“What do you say, Cassian. Are you with us?”

* * *

Out in the hall, Jyn paced back and forth in front of the door to Senator Organa’s office. She had abandoned the waiting room as soon as the door had closed behind the two of them. Leia’s fussy protocol droid had burned through her last nerve and if she had to sit there and listen to him fret about his precious schedule for one more minute she would lose her mind. Not that waiting out here was much better. With nothing else to distract her all she could do was wonder and worry.

Just when she was beginning to contemplate braving the droid’s chatter once more, the door slid open. Cassian exited with a dazed look on his face.

Jyn recognized the expression. She had probably looked like that herself after a one-on-one meeting with Leia. The senator had incredible force of personality. No matter how well prepared she thought she was, afterward Jyn always felt like she had been hit by a laser cannon. And she had shoved Cassian in there without any warning. _Serves him right. Maybe if he had heard me out yesterday he would have known what to expect._

As though he was aware of her thoughts, Cassian finally shook off his daze and turned to Jyn. For a moment the ghost of a smile seemed to flick across his face but it was gone before she could be sure.

“That was a dirty trick,” he said ruefully. 

Jyn shrugged but didn’t deny it. She was acting like she had known all along how this meeting would end but she couldn’t help feeling relieved. She had told herself she believed in him, that she could put her trust in him. She had brought him here after all, hadn’t she? It hadn’t just been because she hated losing and she wanted to prove a point. But her racing heart made her a liar.

Suddenly needing to escape the oppressive atmosphere of the windowless hallway, Jyn turned and headed back the way she had come. Cassian fell into step beside her. The action was so natural that for a moment it felt like old times. Before she thought better of it - before she thought at all - Jyn jostled Cassian’s elbow with hers.

“Welcome back.”

This time she was sure he smiled.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> First, I have changed the title of the fic. I’m sincerely sorry for any confusion this caused. However I’m even more sorry I rushed to publish before coming up with a proper title. (The working title was “Rogue One: Nazi Hunters” so you’re welcome.) Project Hurricane will make its re-appearance later.
> 
> Leia, Threepio and a handful of other familiar faces will drop by occasionally, mostly for funsies. I’ll add them in the tags as they appear, but it’s not their show. Thanks to M. Rae for reminding me how great Threepio is.
> 
> Finally, I’m so sorry about the long delay between chapters and the dragging exposition. Now that it’s (mostly) out of the way we can get to the fun stuff: emotional growth and punching space nazis.


End file.
